OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
DRIVE: Dependable Robust Interpretable Visionary Ensemble Framework in Autonomous Driving
Venue: arXiv cs.RO 2024
Year: 2024

Recent advancements in autonomous driving have seen a paradigm shift towards end-to-end learning paradigms, which map sensory inputs directly to driving actions, thereby enhancing the robustness and adaptability of autonomous vehicles. However, these models often sacrifice interpretability, posing significant challenges to trust, safety, and regulatory compliance. To address these issues, we introduce DRIVE -- Dependable Robust Interpretable Visionary Ensemble Framework in Autonomous Driving, a comprehensive framework designed to improve the dependability and stability of explanations in end-to-end unsupervised autonomous driving models. Our work specifically targets the inherent instability problems observed in the Driving through the Concept Gridlock (DCG) model, which undermine the trustworthiness of its explanations and decision-making processes. We define four key attributes of DRIVE: consistent interpretability, stable interpretability, consistent output, and stable output. These attributes collectively ensure that explanations remain reliable and robust across different scenarios and perturbations. Through extensive empirical evaluations, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our framework in enhancing the stability and dependability of explanations, thereby addressing the limitations of current models. Our contributions include an in-depth analysis of the dependability issues within the DCG model, a rigorous definition of DRIVE with its fundamental properties, a framework to implement DRIVE, and novel metrics for evaluating the dependability of concept-based explainable autonomous driving models. These advancements lay the groundwork for the development of more reliable and trusted autonomous driving systems, paving the way for their broader acceptance and deployment in real-world applications.
Structure-preserving learning for multi-symplectic PDEs
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2024
Year: 2024

This paper presents an energy-preserving machine learning method for inferring reduced-order models (ROMs) by exploiting the multi-symplectic form of partial differential equations (PDEs). The vast majority of energy-preserving reduced-order methods use symplectic Galerkin projection to construct reduced-order Hamiltonian models by projecting the full models onto a symplectic subspace. However, symplectic projection requires the existence of fully discrete operators, and in many cases, such as black-box PDE solvers, these operators are inaccessible. In this work, we propose an energy-preserving machine learning method that can infer the dynamics of the given PDE using data only, so that the proposed framework does not depend on the fully discrete operators. In this context, the proposed method is non-intrusive. The proposed method is grey box in the sense that it requires only some basic knowledge of the multi-symplectic model at the partial differential equation level. We prove that the proposed method satisfies spatially discrete local energy conservation and preserves the multi-symplectic conservation laws. We test our method on the linear wave equation, the Korteweg-de Vries equation, and the Zakharov-Kuznetsov equation. We test the generalization of our learned models by testing them far outside the training time interval.
Efficiently Crowdsourcing Visual Importance with Punch-Hole Annotation
Venue: arXiv cs.HC 2024
Year: 2024

We introduce a novel crowdsourcing method for identifying important areas in graphical images through punch-hole labeling. Traditional methods, such as gaze trackers and mouse-based annotations, which generate continuous data, can be impractical in crowdsourcing scenarios. They require many participants, and the outcome data can be noisy. In contrast, our method first segments the graphical image with a grid and drops a portion of the patches (punch holes). Then, we iteratively ask the labeler to validate each annotation with holes, narrowing down the annotation only having the most important area. This approach aims to reduce annotation noise in crowdsourcing by standardizing the annotations while enhancing labeling efficiency and reliability. Preliminary findings from fundamental charts demonstrate that punch-hole labeling can effectively pinpoint critical regions. This also highlights its potential for broader application in visualization research, particularly in studying large-scale users' graphical perception. Our future work aims to enhance the algorithm to achieve faster labeling speed and prove its utility through large-scale experiments.
Do Pre-trained Vision-Language Models Encode Object States?
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2024
Year: 2024

For a vision-language model (VLM) to understand the physical world, such as cause and effect, a first step is to capture the temporal dynamics of the visual world, for example how the physical states of objects evolve over time (e.g. a whole apple into a sliced apple). Our paper aims to investigate if VLMs pre-trained on web-scale data learn to encode object states, which can be extracted with zero-shot text prompts. We curate an object state recognition dataset ChangeIt-Frames, and evaluate nine open-source VLMs, including models trained with contrastive and generative objectives. We observe that while these state-of-the-art vision-language models can reliably perform object recognition, they consistently fail to accurately distinguish the objects' physical states. Through extensive experiments, we identify three areas for improvements for VLMs to better encode object states, namely the quality of object localization, the architecture to bind concepts to objects, and the objective to learn discriminative visual and language encoders on object states. Data and code are released.
Code Vulnerability Detection: A Comparative Analysis of Emerging Large Language Models
Venue: arXiv cs.SE 2024
Year: 2024

The growing trend of vulnerability issues in software development as a result of a large dependence on open-source projects has received considerable attention recently. This paper investigates the effectiveness of Large Language Models (LLMs) in identifying vulnerabilities within codebases, with a focus on the latest advancements in LLM technology. Through a comparative analysis, we assess the performance of emerging LLMs, specifically Llama, CodeLlama, Gemma, and CodeGemma, alongside established state-of-the-art models such as BERT, RoBERTa, and GPT-3. Our study aims to shed light on the capabilities of LLMs in vulnerability detection, contributing to the enhancement of software security practices across diverse open-source repositories. We observe that CodeGemma achieves the highest F1-score of 58\ and a Recall of 87\, amongst the recent additions of large language models to detect software security vulnerabilities.
Weak Superimposed Codes of Improved Asymptotic Rate and Their Randomized Construction
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2024
Year: 2024

Weak superimposed codes are combinatorial structures related closely to generalized cover-free families, superimposed codes, and disjunct matrices in that they are only required to satisfy similar but less stringent conditions. This class of codes may also be seen as a stricter variant of what are known as locally thin families in combinatorics. Originally, weak superimposed codes were introduced in the context of multimedia content protection against illegal distribution of copies under the assumption that a coalition of malicious users may employ the averaging attack with adversarial noise. As in many other kinds of codes in information theory, it is of interest and importance in the study of weak superimposed codes to find the highest achievable rate in the asymptotic regime and give an efficient construction that produces an infinite sequence of codes that achieve it. Here, we prove a tighter lower bound than the sharpest known one on the rate of optimal weak superimposed codes and give a polynomial-time randomized construction algorithm for codes that asymptotically attain our improved bound with high probability. Our probabilistic approach is versatile and applicable to many other related codes and arrays.
Enhancing Video Transmission with Machine Learning based Routing in Software-Defined Networks
Venue: arXiv cs.NI 2024
Year: 2024

Our study uses the centralized, flexible, dynamic, and programmable structure of Software-Defined networks (SDN) to overcome the problems. Although SDN effectively addresses the challenges present in traditional networks, it still requires further enhancements to achieve a more optimized network architecture. The Floodlight controller utilized in this study employs metrics such as hop count, which provides limited information for routing. In scenarios such as video transmission, this situation is insufficient and the need for optimization arises. For this purpose, an artificial intelligence (AI) based routing algorithm is proposed between the server and the client in the scenario based on NSFNET topology. The topology designed with the Floodlight controller in the Mininet simulation environment includes a client, a server, and 14 switches. A realistic network environment is provided by adding different receivers and creating TCP traffic between these receivers using the iperf3 tool. In three scenarios, video streaming is performed using the FFmpeg tool, and 49 path metrics such as RTT, throughput, and loss are recorded. In these scenarios, PSNR and SSIM calculations are made to observe the differences between the transmitted and the original video in congested and uncongested environments. Due to the lack of a dataset suitable for the proposed network environment in the literature, a new dataset consisting of 876 records is created using continuously transmitted video traffic. Low and high traffic levels are created within the dataset, and different machine learning techniques such as KNN, Random Forest, SVM, AdaBoost, Logistic Regression and XGBoost are applied using the features that affect the traffic levels.
Achieving Responsible AI through ESG: Insights and Recommendations from Industry Engagement
Venue: arXiv cs.CY 2024
Year: 2024

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) becomes integral to business operations, integrating Responsible AI (RAI) within Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) frameworks is essential for ethical and sustainable AI deployment. This study examines how leading companies align RAI with their ESG goals. Through interviews with 28 industry leaders, we identified a strong link between RAI and ESG practices. However, a significant gap exists between internal RAI policies and public disclosures, highlighting the need for greater board-level expertise, robust governance, and employee engagement. We provide key recommendations to strengthen RAI strategies, focusing on transparency, cross-functional collaboration, and seamless integration into existing ESG frameworks.
Harnessing Artificial Intelligence for Wildlife Conservation
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2024
Year: 2024

The rapid decline in global biodiversity demands innovative conservation strategies. This paper examines the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in wildlife conservation, focusing on the Conservation AI platform. Leveraging machine learning and computer vision, Conservation AI detects and classifies animals, humans, and poaching-related objects using visual spectrum and thermal infrared cameras. The platform processes this data with convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and Transformer architectures to monitor species, including those which are critically endangered. Real-time detection provides the immediate responses required for time-critical situations (e.g. poaching), while non-real-time analysis supports long-term wildlife monitoring and habitat health assessment. Case studies from Europe, North America, Africa, and Southeast Asia highlight the platform's success in species identification, biodiversity monitoring, and poaching prevention. The paper also discusses challenges related to data quality, model accuracy, and logistical constraints, while outlining future directions involving technological advancements, expansion into new geographical regions, and deeper collaboration with local communities and policymakers. Conservation AI represents a significant step forward in addressing the urgent challenges of wildlife conservation, offering a scalable and adaptable solution that can be implemented globally.
3CSim: CARLA Corner Case Simulation for Control Assessment in Autonomous Driving
Venue: arXiv cs.RO 2024
Year: 2024

We present the CARLA corner case simulation (3CSim) for evaluating autonomous driving (AD) systems within the CARLA simulator. This framework is designed to address the limitations of traditional AD model training by focusing on non-standard, rare, and cognitively challenging scenarios. These corner cases are crucial for ensuring vehicle safety and reliability, as they test advanced control capabilities under unusual conditions. Our approach introduces a taxonomy of corner cases categorized into state anomalies, behavior anomalies, and evidence-based anomalies. We implement 32 unique corner cases with adjustable parameters, including 9 predefined weather conditions, timing, and traffic density. The framework enables repeatable and modifiable scenario evaluations, facilitating the creation of a comprehensive dataset for further analysis.
Effective Monitoring of Online Decision-Making Algorithms in Digital Intervention Implementation
Venue: arXiv cs.CY 2024
Year: 2024

Online AI decision-making algorithms are increasingly used by digital interventions to dynamically personalize treatment to individuals. These algorithms determine, in real-time, the delivery of treatment based on accruing data. The objective of this paper is to provide guidelines for enabling effective monitoring of online decision-making algorithms with the goal of (1) safeguarding individuals and (2) ensuring data quality. We elucidate guidelines and discuss our experience in monitoring online decision-making algorithms in two digital intervention clinical trials (Oralytics and MiWaves). Our guidelines include (1) developing fallback methods, pre-specified procedures executed when an issue occurs, and (2) identifying potential issues categorizing them by severity (red, yellow, and green). Across both trials, the monitoring systems detected real-time issues such as out-of-memory issues, database timeout, and failed communication with an external source. Fallback methods prevented participants from not receiving any treatment during the trial and also prevented the use of incorrect data in statistical analyses. These trials provide case studies for how health scientists can build monitoring systems for their digital intervention. Without these algorithm monitoring systems, critical issues would have gone undetected and unresolved. Instead, these monitoring systems safeguarded participants and ensured the quality of the resulting data for updating the intervention and facilitating scientific discovery. These monitoring guidelines and findings give digital intervention teams the confidence to include online decision-making algorithms in digital interventions.
From Latent to Engine Manifolds: Analyzing ImageBind's Multimodal Embedding Space
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2024
Year: 2024

This study investigates ImageBind's ability to generate meaningful fused multimodal embeddings for online auto parts listings. We propose a simplistic embedding fusion workflow that aims to capture the overlapping information of image/text pairs, ultimately combining the semantics of a post into a joint embedding. After storing such fused embeddings in a vector database, we experiment with dimensionality reduction and provide empirical evidence to convey the semantic quality of the joint embeddings by clustering and examining the posts nearest to each cluster centroid. Additionally, our initial findings with ImageBind's emergent zero-shot cross-modal retrieval suggest that pure audio embeddings can correlate with semantically similar marketplace listings, indicating potential avenues for future research.
OxML Challenge 2023: Carcinoma classification using data augmentation
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2024
Year: 2024

Carcinoma is the prevailing type of cancer and can manifest in various body parts. It is widespread and can potentially develop in numerous locations within the body. In the medical domain, data for carcinoma cancer is often limited or unavailable due to privacy concerns. Moreover, when available, it is highly imbalanced, with a scarcity of positive class samples and an abundance of negative ones. The OXML 2023 challenge provides a small and imbalanced dataset, presenting significant challenges for carcinoma classification. To tackle these issues, participants in the challenge have employed various approaches, relying on pre-trained models, preprocessing techniques, and few-shot learning. Our work proposes a novel technique that combines padding augmentation and ensembling to address the carcinoma classification challenge. In our proposed method, we utilize ensembles of five neural networks and implement padding as a data augmentation technique, taking into account varying image sizes to enhance the classifier's performance. Using our approach, we made place into top three and declared as winner.
Applying Action Masking and Curriculum Learning Techniques to Improve Data Efficiency and Overall Performance in Operational Technology Cyber Security using Reinforcement Learning
Venue: arXiv cs.CR 2024
Year: 2024

In previous work, the IPMSRL environment (Integrated Platform Management System Reinforcement Learning environment) was developed with the aim of training defensive RL agents in a simulator representing a subset of an IPMS on a maritime vessel under a cyber-attack. This paper extends the use of IPMSRL to enhance realism including the additional dynamics of false positive alerts and alert delay. Applying curriculum learning, in the most difficult environment tested, resulted in an episode reward mean increasing from a baseline result of -2.791 to -0.569. Applying action masking, in the most difficult environment tested, resulted in an episode reward mean increasing from a baseline result of -2.791 to -0.743. Importantly, this level of performance was reached in less than 1 million timesteps, which was far more data efficient than vanilla PPO which reached a lower level of performance after 2.5 million timesteps. The training method which resulted in the highest level of performance observed in this paper was a combination of the application of curriculum learning and action masking, with a mean episode reward of 0.137. This paper also introduces a basic hardcoded defensive agent encoding a representation of cyber security best practice, which provides context to the episode reward mean figures reached by the RL agents. The hardcoded agent managed an episode reward mean of -1.895. This paper therefore shows that applications of curriculum learning and action masking, both independently and in tandem, present a way to overcome the complex real-world dynamics that are present in operational technology cyber security threat remediation.
ASFT: Aligned Supervised Fine-Tuning through Absolute Likelihood
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2024
Year: 2024

Direct Preference Optimization (DPO) is a method for enhancing model performance by directly optimizing for the preferences or rankings of outcomes, instead of traditional loss functions. This approach has proven effective in aligning Large Language Models (LLMs) with human preferences. Despite its widespread use across various tasks, DPO has been criticized for its sensitivity to the effectiveness of Supervised Fine-Tuning (SFT) and its limitations in enabling models to learn human-preferred responses, leading to less satisfactory performance. To address these limitations, we propose Aligned Supervised Fine-Tuning (ASFT), an effective approach that better aligns LLMs with pair-wise datasets by optimizing absolute likelihood for each response, rather than using the Bradley-Terry model, and eliminates the need for a reference model. Through theoretical gradient analysis, we demonstrate that ASFT mitigates the issue where the DPO loss function decreases the probability of generating human-dispreferred data at a faster rate than it increases the probability of producing preferred data. Additionally, we compare ASFT to DPO and its latest variants, such as the single-step approach ORPO, using the latest instruction-tuned model Llama3, which has been fine-tuned on UltraFeedback and HH-RLHF. We evaluated performance on instruction-following benchmarks like MT-Bench and traditional text generation metrics such as BLEU-4 and ROUGE-L. Extensive experiments demonstrate that ASFT is an effective alignment approach, consistently outperforming existing methods.
Language Models and Retrieval Augmented Generation for Automated Structured Data Extraction from Diagnostic Reports
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2024
Year: 2024

Purpose: To develop and evaluate an automated system for extracting structured clinical information from unstructured radiology and pathology reports using open-weights large language models (LMs) and retrieval augmented generation (RAG), and to assess the effects of model configuration variables on extraction performance. Methods and Materials: The study utilized two datasets: 7,294 radiology reports annotated for Brain Tumor Reporting and Data System (BT-RADS) scores and 2,154 pathology reports annotated for isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) mutation status. An automated pipeline was developed to benchmark the performance of various LMs and RAG configurations. The impact of model size, quantization, prompting strategies, output formatting, and inference parameters was systematically evaluated. Results: The best performing models achieved over 98% accuracy in extracting BT-RADS scores from radiology reports and over 90% for IDH mutation status extraction from pathology reports. The top model being medical fine-tuned llama3. Larger, newer, and domain fine-tuned models consistently outperformed older and smaller models. Model quantization had minimal impact on performance. Few-shot prompting significantly improved accuracy. RAG improved performance for complex pathology reports but not for shorter radiology reports. Conclusions: Open LMs demonstrate significant potential for automated extraction of structured clinical data from unstructured clinical reports with local privacy-preserving application. Careful model selection, prompt engineering, and semi-automated optimization using annotated data are critical for optimal performance. These approaches could be reliable enough for practical use in research workflows, highlighting the potential for human-machine collaboration in healthcare data extraction.
Model-in-the-Loop (MILO): Accelerating Multimodal AI Data Annotation with LLMs
Venue: arXiv cs.HC 2024
Year: 2024

The growing demand for AI training data has transformed data annotation into a global industry, but traditional approaches relying on human annotators are often time-consuming, labor-intensive, and prone to inconsistent quality. We propose the Model-in-the-Loop (MILO) framework, which integrates AI/ML models into the annotation process. Our research introduces a collaborative paradigm that leverages the strengths of both professional human annotators and large language models (LLMs). By employing LLMs as pre-annotation and real-time assistants, and judges on annotator responses, MILO enables effective interaction patterns between human annotators and LLMs. Three empirical studies on multimodal data annotation demonstrate MILO's efficacy in reducing handling time, improving data quality, and enhancing annotator experiences. We also introduce quality rubrics for flexible evaluation and fine-grained feedback on open-ended annotations. The MILO framework has implications for accelerating AI/ML development, reducing reliance on human annotation alone, and promoting better alignment between human and machine values.